Can Gamma Rays Reveal Their Source?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around whether gamma rays can provide sufficient information to identify their source. It explores the implications of gamma ray properties in relation to their origins, including considerations of direction and energy.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest that gamma rays do not bend in magnetic or electric fields, allowing for the extrapolation of their direction to determine their source.
  • Others reference historical limitations in X-ray telescopes, noting that earlier methods relied on correlating X-ray sources with known astronomical objects, such as the Crab Nebula.
  • One participant questions whether the energy of a gamma ray can provide clues about its origins, seeking to understand the phenomena that produce gamma rays of specific energies.
  • A later reply clarifies a potential confusion between gamma rays and X-rays, suggesting a need for precision in terminology.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the ability of gamma rays to reveal their sources, with some focusing on directional information while others emphasize energy characteristics. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the extent to which gamma rays can definitively indicate their origins.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the reliance on directional information and energy characteristics, as well as potential confusion between gamma rays and X-rays. The discussion does not resolve the complexities involved in identifying sources based on these properties.

wolram
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Does a gamma ray ray carry enough information to prove its source?
 
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depends, it can't bend in magnetic nor electric fields, so the you can extrapolate its direction. i.e you can know from what postition in space it come from.
 
Before Chandra most X ray telescopes had pretty poor angular resolution so you had to do something like "there's an X ray source in the same bit of the sky as the Crab Nebula, X ray sources have to be pretty energetic so therefore the Crab must be the source of the X rays"
chandra has about the same resolution as the best optical ground based telescopes.
 
wolram said:
Does a gamma ray ray carry enough information to prove its source?
If one is referring to cosmological origins, for a single gamma photon, not necessarily. One usually relies upon the direction from which the gamma ray is received in order to determine is source, as indicated by mgb_phys.
 
Apart from the direction i guess its energy is clue as to its origins, if so do we have an idea of what phenomenon produces an gamma ray of X energy?
 

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